


Save Yourself

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [552]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, people hurt get saved (eventually)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 14:15:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14380371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: bladecutter25 askedCould you write something where Kayo needs to remove a heavily injured Alan from a dangerous area while she has a broken leg?





	Save Yourself

The one time she had a physics problem, and she couldn’t reach John.

Kayo hissed angrily through gritted teeth, blinking away sweat and pained tears as she studied the terrain.  “Why do neither of us carry a jetpack in our gear?” she asked her prone companion.

Alan was twisted on the rocks, but any attempt Kayo made to move him had him whimper and moan in pain.  He was chalk-pale, chilly to the touch and yet still sweating enough that she could see it from here.  Even so, he tried to smile at her pointless little quip.  It was such an Alan thing to do, she had to reach over and gently brush his hair away from his eyes.  His eyelashes fluttered as he pressed lightly into her touch.

Kayo looked around, taking in the small, low cave surrounded by evidence of a coyote den, the loose shale above them that looked ready to fall any time, the steep walls whited out by the too-hot desert sun beating down, and made her decision.

They couldn’t stay here.  That meant getting out.

She’d already gathered their meagre supplies, and now she made her assessment; the first rule of rescue was to save yourself.  Kayo hissed and swore in her father’s tongue, but managed to lift and drag herself by her arms the six feet that separated her from a desert-bleached piece of tree.  It was a little gnarled and knotty, but straight enough for purpose.

All their injuries were internal; she had no qualms sacrificing the long bandage to strap her make-shift split to her bent leg.

Alan was harder; she didn’t want to put any pressure anywhere without knowing what was going on under the skin. She was guessing at least three broken ribs and who knew what else under that. But he was in uniform, and Brains planned for all eventualities, even the worst.

It took her a moment to find the right places to press, her memory rusty, but as soon as she found the combination, Alan’s suit made a low noise of circuitry and the elements stiffened and locked into place like a suit of armour.  He couldn’t move, but neither could he be crushed by the ropes she carefully pressed through the loose dirt and gravel under him and around into a cradle.

She wished she could do that just to her own suit’s leg, the stick would make a reasonable cane.  She made a mental note to suggest that to Brains as she pressed on.

The lowest side was maybe twelve feet, maybe fifteen, dwarfed by the cliff on the other side that Alan had crashed down when the Chaos Crew bomb had detonated just as Kayo had got to Alan.

She hoped they were long gone.

Rubbing her gloved hands together, Kayo dragged herself to the base of the lower cliff and reached up.  Her shoulders burned, and she hissed and panted through the pain of sharp edges cutting into her despite the protection of her suit.  She dragged herself over the edge and lay there for a moment, panting under the hot desert sun.

She wanted to stop and rest, swallow hard against her parched throat and wait for rescue.

But she needed to save Alan.

She rolled and pushed herself onto her good knee, letting the splint take the rest of the weight.  She was hoping for an improbably handy sturdy old tree.

She blinked at the large boulder, embedded into the flat desert not ten feet away.  “Well, that will work,” she muttered to herself.

Only the lazily rolling tumbleweeds were witness to her wet cheeks by the time she managed to drag herself and the rope tied to her belt around the rock.  Coming back to the edge, she looked down, braced herself, and let herself drop.  The rope snapped taut, and she caught herself with her hands just in time against the crumbly rocky surface.

“How did you get heavier than me,” she asked Alan, blinking when she got no reply.  Gritting her teeth, she set to work, pulling hand over hand, ignoring the stretch of her shoulders and the ache in her back at the unnatural angle.  The toes of her splinted leg with tingling, alternating between icy and burning, but still she pulled until finally she could tie off the rope.

She slid as much as she climbed, hissing and cursing and screaming out to every knock to her battered body, but it was worth it to roll Alan to the relative safety of the lee of the big rock.  The sun was starting to sink now, the shadows lengthening, and as Kayo looked back down, she caught the movement of predators around the edge of where they’d landed.

Kayo let herself fall onto her back, dehydrated and exhausted.  “You better not be dead after all that,” she told Alan, less a threat and more a plea.  She tilted her head to watch his shallow, rapid breathing.  It was almost hypnotic, and she stayed watching for longer than she planned, so long that at first the sound of an engine didn’t fully register.

Kayo forced aching shoulders to push her up one more time, but she fell back, laughing, as something pink flew right overhead and banked to settle gracefully on the red-packed dirt nearby.

“Kayo? Alan?”

“Here!” Kayo croaked, unable to stop laughing as voices and feet hurried towards them to take them  _home_.


End file.
